And Robert Huth provided the most dramatic of finishes, firing home from six yards in the third minute of added time to grab the first three points of the season for Pulis’ battling side.[>

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This was after Villa had gone in at the break wondering exactly how they weren’t at least two or three goals to the good.[>

[> It was all very surprising really because it was the home side who generally had the upper hand in the opening 20 minutes.

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But when Villa finally settled down and started to cause problems they really did present Stoke with plenty of problems.[>

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They seemed composed enough early on and Jones tested Friedel with a cheeky 30-yarder which might easily have caught the keeper out.[>

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There seemed no danger when the big striker, with his back to goal, collected the ball. But he suddenly turned and unleashed a thumping left-foot volley which forced Friedel to react quickly to save low down.[>

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Villa slowly but surely started to make inroads and when they did they began to cause mass panic in the home defence – which seemed to go missing on occasions.[>

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None more so than 10 minutes before the break when Downing was left completely unmarked and engineered a goal from nothing.[>

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Gabby Agbonlahor’s cross to the far post was far from easy to deal with.[>

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But Downing knew exactly what he was going to do and he steered a superb diving header beyond the reach of Stoke keeper Thomas Sorensen and in off the post.[>

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Stoke threatened to hit back instantly and were furious when they seemed to have perfectly justified claims for a penalty waved aside.[>

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[> Villa defender James Collins protested his innocence but the ball clearly struck his arm as he tried to deal with a Jones header.

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And Stoke’s sense of injustice could have been made to sting even more three minutes later when Ashley Young missed a great chance to double the advantage.[>

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Agbonlahor caused mayhem with a brilliant cross to the edge of the six- yard box and though Young met it well enough, he headed wide when he should have buried it.[>

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Then in a chaotic five minutes before the interval, Villa stretched Stoke all over the pitch. Downing went close to grabbing a second when he got in a shot from Marc Albrighton’s cross but Sorensen somehow clawed it away even though he had to go into the net himself to do it.[>

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Then Young flashed a ball across the face of the goal that would have needed only the slightest touch to increase Villa’s lead.[>

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Albrighton was giving the home side the jitters and Danny Collins went into the book after coming up with a hefty solution to the problem.[>

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The arrival of Pulis at half-time was met with huge applause by the home fans and it seemed to spur his side into action.[>

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They started to throw caution to the wind and Jones went close with a powerful header which Friedel did well to block.[>

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Friedel then had to move equally sharply to block a fiercely struck low shot from Etherington.[>

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Then came that dramatic finale as first Jones and then Huth sent the Britannia Stadium wild.[>